Martin Miguel de Guemes

Martin Miguel de Guemes (8 February 1785-17 June 1821) was an Argentine general during the South American Wars of Liberation. Guemes was a major guerrilla leader during the Argentine War of Independence, during which he served as Governor of Salta and defeated the Royalist generals Joaquin de la Pezuela and Jose de la Serna. However, his strength was undermined by the start of the Argentine Civil War in 1820, and the Royalists took advantage of the chaos to recapture Salta. Guemes was mortally wounded while escaping the city on 7 June 1821, and he died at his camp at Chamical ten days later.

Biography
Martin Miguel de Guemes was born in Salta, Argentina on 8 February 1785, the son of a Cantabrian Spanish immigrant father and an Argentine mother from Salta. He joined the Spanish Army at the age of 23 and defended Buenos Aires from the British, and, following the May Revolution of 1810, he joined the army sent to fight the Spanish in Upper Peru and was victorious at the Battle of Suipacha. He later took part in the siege of Montevideo, and, after returning to Salta in 1815, he employed local gaucho guerrillas as resistance fighters against the Royalists. He waged a slow yet tiring guerrilla war against the Spanish viceroy Joaquin de la Pezuela, and, when Jose de la Serna and a large Royalist army marched on Salta at the beginning of 1817, Guemes retook Humahuaca on 1 March and forced Serna's army to retreat from Salta on 16 April 1817 shortly after the Royalist defeat at the Battle of Chacabuco in Chile. In 1819 and 1820, he resisted further Spanish invasions of Argentina. With the start of the Argentine Civil War in 1820, Guemes faced himself fighting the Royalists to the north and the Tucuman governor Bernabe Araoz to the south, and, on 3 April 1821, Araoz and an alliance of wealthy landowners defeated Guemes in battle. The conservative cabildo of Salta then deposed Guemes from his governorship, and, on 7 June 1821, the Royalists capitalized on the chaos by courting the local landowners' support and retaking Salta. Guemes attempted to flee the city, but he was shot in the back and died of his wounds at his camp at Chamical on 17 June.